This Italian compact shows the Fiat-Chrysler alliance has promise.
We are sympathetic to the boy who cried wolf. Frankly, we’ve lost track of the number of times we have heralded the return of Alfa Romeo to the United States.
Keep Reading: 2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta – First Drive Review
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Green startups are tricky. They are often primarily driven by good and noble intentions about saving the environment–and that often sounds like a non-profit model to customers and VCs.
But there is one green company that has come up with a winning business model that has attracted heavyweight investors like Coca-Cola, Al Gore’s Generation IM, and Sigma, says RRE Ventures Stuart Ellman, who is backing the company.
RecycleBank has a simple model – it pays people money to recycle. And we are not talking about cents. Households signed up with the company get about $40-$50 a month (depending on how much they recycle) for doing the right thing.
“Everybody wants to be green. Everybody wants to do the right thing, but it’s amazing how many more people do it when you get paid,” say Ellman.
Don’t miss…
And more Green Innovation interviews:
Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei
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(This is a guest post from the author’s blog.)
One of the big debates among China real estate watchers is whether the country’s apparent property bubble – characterized by frenzied purchase prices, low occupancy rates, and slumping rents — is restricted purely to premier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, or extends to 2nd and 3rd tier cities as well. I’ve heard experts insist that it’s purely a top-tier phenomenon, but the evidence of my eyes and ears tells me that similar market dynamics have taking hold all across China. An article earlier this week in the Los Angeles Times provides some evidence that I’m right.
I’m briefly quoted in the article, mentioning how dependent local governments have become on property sales as a source of revenue (up to 40%, according to one central government study), which gives them every incentive to keep markets bubbling. But my little tidbit aside, the article is well worth reading for its account of conditions in Hefei, a 3rd tier city that serves as the capital of Anhui province.
When the author, Beijing-based reporter David Pierson, first called me up and asked about real estate speculation in 2nd and 3rd tier cities, Hefei was one of the first names off the tip of my tongue. Before 1949, Hefei was a small market town, and even just a couple years ago, it was a pretty dusty, unassuming place. Anhui province belongs to what I call (in my Nine Nations of China framework) The Crossroads, a largely rural region along the middle Yangtze River that supplies many of China’s migrant workers. I’ve spent some time in Hefei on business, and I’ve been astounded at the colossal development taking place around its airport. While impressive in both scale and grandiosity, it just didn’t make sense to me, and was actually one of the first things that got me thinking seriously about the prospect of a property bubble in China.
It just so happened that David had just returned from Hefei, and that the frenetic real estate market there formed the basis for his story. Noting that average housing prices in Hefei soared 50% last year, he describes the scene:
Taxi drivers boast of owning multiple flats for investment. Billboards hawk developments with names such as Villa Glorious and Rich Country. Frenzied crowds pack sales events with bags of cash, buying units that exist only on blueprints …
While pricey by local standards, [prices at $120,000 per apartment are] still a fraction of what homes cost in the capital. That’s why buyers continue to pour in from across the region, accumulating apartments as a hedge against inflation in a nation where there are few investment alternatives. More residential units were sold here the first three months of 2010 than in Beijing or Shanghai — cities four times the size of Hefei . . .
About 15% of the city’s residents are now estimated to be construction workers . . . One of the most popular radio programs here is an afternoon talk show called “Blossom Real Estate.” Some prospective buyers get half a dozen text messages a day on their cellphones from developers advertising new properties . . . “Everyone in Hefei lives with the real estate industry,” said Guo Hongbing, a marketing consultant for several developers. “You can’t escape it.”
Note several familiar trends I’ve been mentioning all along: people (many of them from out of town) buying multiple apartments they have no intention of occupying; funds channeled into real estate due to lack of investment alternatives; a property market that far outstrips the local economy in size and energy; reliance on construction as a source of jobs; and buyer psychology approaching obsession. In particular, David observes the same low occupancy rates that caught my attention in the first place:
All the properties had been sold, and Guo was interested in estimating how many were left empty by investors. His unscientific method? Looking for curtains.
“See, less than half that building is occupied,” he said, pointing to one block with several bare windows. “These speculators want to buy as many as possible.”
So is China’s property bubble limited to Beijing and Shanghai? One Chinese economist weighs in:
“The situation in Hefei is a symbol of the craziness in China’s real estate market,” said Cao Jianhai, a professor of economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank. “Prices in second- and third-tier cities are increasing more dramatically than in the first tier. It’s very dangerous, and it puts local banks at risk.”
For those who are interested in my take on the Chinese government’s efforts to cool down all this excitement, and whether they will prove effective or not, you may want to check out this syndicated AFP article that quoted me earlier this week. One of the government’s main objectives, I note, is simply to signal its intent:
“The government is sending out signals that it is not going to keep this party going and that has made people more cautious,” said Patrick Chovanec, an economics professor at Tsinghua University.
But in a comment that didn’t make it into the article, I worried that while investors are getting jittery about prominent markets like Beijing and Shanghai, rather than exiting real estate altogether, they may just be shifting their focus to 2nd and 3rd tier cities. As for the practical effect of some of the government’s more piecemeal measures (such as requiring higher down-payments on mortgages), I have my doubts:
Chovanec warned the measures aimed at curbing speculative activity could miss their target because about 50 percent of residential purchases were paid for in cash.
“Most of the people paying cash are buying their second, third, fourth or fifth unit to hold idle as a place to stash their cash,” he said.
A holding tax on vacant properties and increased investment options for Chinese people would be more effective in curbing prices, Chovanec said.
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Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today. These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.
Entire Daily Herald Series – PENSION CRISIS Illinois teacher pension system in debate
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Related data
Vouchers for CPS students advances in House
Chicago Tribune (blog) – Jim Reed, spokesman for the Illinois Education Association, said today the bill violates the Illinois Constitution by giving state money to private schools, …
LeRoy teachers approve 3-year contract
Bloomington Pantagraph – LeROY — The LeRoy Education Association has approved a three-year contract, which would go into effect on July 1 if the LeRoy school board ratifies it May 10.
U46 one step away from $20+ million
Elgin Courier News – “Absolutely.” “We’re very upbeat; we’re very positive,” he continued. “This is relief.” Farnham echoed similar sentiments and added that it brings the state one step closer to reforming education funding. The Illinois State Board of Education, as well as many legislators, “wanted a global fix, but they see it as a step in that direction,” Farnham explained.
Is District 300 cutting too much?
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – 300 have publicly questioned whether the district is aiming for the right target. As I’ve reported, the district is trying to trim $15 million from its 2010-11 budget. This goal is based on Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget proposal, which most see as a transparent gambit to pass a tax increase by placing a disproportionate burden of state cuts on public schools.
Late state payments force District 200 to borrow
Chicago Daily Herald – With the state owing it more than $6 million, Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 must do something it hasn’t done in a long time: borrow money to pay its bills. District 200 school board members on Wednesday agreed to take out $6 million in tax-anticipation warrants, essentially using future revenue to pay for expenditures in the month of May.
Special education payments lagging behind
Peoria Journal Star – Already struggling school districts now are being asked to foot the financial responsibilities for their special education students. Special Education Association of Peoria County, the special education cooperative that serves some 2,500 students countywide, hasn’t seen a dime from the state for mandated special education services
Bill would cut tuition on extra college years
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio – A bill now on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk would give a tuition break to students at public universities who spend a fifth or sixth year working on bachelor’s degrees. The Illinois House approved the bill 66-42 on Wednesday.
Des Plaines teacher wins hero award
Chicago Tribune – More than 9,000 people have won the Hero Award since its inception in 1904 — including, last year, Elgin High School teacher Walter “Mike” Gannon, who came to the rescue of colleague Carolyn Gilbert when she was stabbed by a student in January 2008. The Carnegie Hero Commission has distributed more than $32 million
High school to give students laptops
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – balance, and using technology as an enhancement,” said U High Principal Jeff Hill. “It’s not technology for technology’s sake.” “We’re not taking away Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ or calculus. This just allows teachers to expand teaching,” said Dean. Kurz pointed to math teachers using plug-in writing tablets for student calculations; foreign language teachers using the technology to converse with students
Meridian considers $40 million in school improvements
Decatur Herald and Review – school construction grant program, for which the district applied for several years ago; bonds, which could provide $1.3 million; and a referendum to cover the remaining $9 million. Decatur’s school board passed a resolution Tuesday to ask the county board to put a sales tax increase on November’s ballot. The work could be done in phases, so that selling bonds
Unit 5 eyes earlier school starts
Bloomington Pantagraph – “We’ve lived through the storm. We’ve not as late now as we were at the beginning,” said Wes Caldwell, transportation supervisor for the Normal-based district. school board President Meta Mickens-Baker said she still sees a problem, noting that children miss out on learning when they are regularly late to class. Board members asked for information on whether
Saluting new group of Master Teachers
Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader – Added together, the 12 educators being recognized tonight as Master teachers by The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus have taught kids for more than 226 years. It also raises the number of teachers recognized by the newspapers for educational excellence to 330.
Sterling School Board wants Illinois to stay in Race
Dixon Telegraph – bid to win up to $400 million in funding in the second round of the federal government’s Race to the Top initiative. The Department of Education program provides money to improve schools, teacher evaluations and student assessments. The federal grant aims to improve students’ learning skills and prepare them for the workplace.
Teacher tenure a worn out tradition?
Daily – Tenure is being pulled into question in many states as to whether it is necessary or if teachers can feel safe in their position without it. Colorado, Florida and Washington D.C. are looking to eliminate tenure for teachers. Washington, Maryland and Ohio are working to extend
A new dorm on the horizon for NIU
DeKalb Daily – a “cluster” complex with an arrangement similar to the Northern View Community. Built in 2007, Northern View is for undergraduate students who are at least two years out of high school, graduate students, law students, or any student who has a dependent, partner or spouse. Northern View was also built by a private company but is managed by the university.
State senate pushes for $1 per pack cigarette tax hike to pay for education
Decatur Herald and Review – the Illinois Senate are calling on their colleagues in the House to approve a $1 per pack boost in the state cigarette tax. The move, they say, would help raise money to offset Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed cuts to local school districts. In a statement, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, acknowledged that a cigarette tax hike would be a short-term fix for the state’s
House Democrats polling members on budget options
Springfield State Journal Register – extensive emergency powers for more control over how money is spent in the next budget. With adjournment looming on May 7, Democrats also are asking where cuts should be made while sparing education funding. They also want to gauge support for a series of smaller tax hikes (like a cigarette tax increase), but not the income tax increase sought by Quinn.
Plan to let schools bypass voters on building projects clears the legislature
Chicago Tribune – a bill that will make it easier for school districts to sidestep referendums and use working cash bonds for building projects. The bill had passed the House in March and now goes to Gov. Pat Quinn for his consideration. If signed into law, the bill will permit school districts to transfer working cash bond money to any school fund. Critics have said the legislation will make it easier
Brady: Democrats have failed Illinois The State Journal-Register – “Do we want to continue kicking the can down the road, follow Governor Quinn’s plan to raise revenues by increasing your tax rate, building a bigger, …
Brady blasts Quinn over state’s fiscal woes
Streator Times-Press – the legislative session looming and few substantial budget solutions in the works, GOP candidate for governor Bill Brady used the state’s problems to launch a series of political attacks on Gov. Pat Quinn. Talking to local Republican supporters, the Bloomington state senator said Quinn was out of touch with Illinois voters. “When you’re criticized by Gov. Quinn for not having the courage
Evaluation shield bill goes to governor
Springfield State Journal Register – have a right to know about the public employees and the about the work that they do,” said Dennis DeRossett, executive director of the organization. The organization will ask Gov. Pat Quinn to veto the measure. Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson said the governor will review the measure, while noting he’s an advocate for open government.
Chipping away at law that helps the public
Chicago Daily Southtown – threaten to scuttle a bill that would bring Illinois millions of dollars in federal money for education if they don’t get what they want. So the Legislature says the performance evaluations of teachers, principals and school superintendents no longer are covered by the Freedom of Information law. Well, every other government employee now wants the same type of protection.
Senate passes FOIA changes
Crystal Lake Northwest – the General Assembly weeks after the new FOIA took effect, which exempted performance evaluations of teachers and school administrators so Illinois could compete for federal Race to the Top education funding. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, with the help of public watchdog and news media groups, drafted a new FOIA last year to replace one that critics long have accused of being
State lawmakers cloud over sunshine laws
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – Lawmakers sent Gov. Pat Quinn a sweeping change to the state’s open records law that would keep all public sector employees’ performance evaluations secret. The vote was 45-9 with one member voting “present.” Local senators
They’re hiding key records from you
Arlington Heights Daily Herald Editorial – A strong majority of Illinois senators, including many from our suburbs, sent Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn a bill Thursday that would make it much more difficult for taxpayers to evaluate the public employees whose salaries they fund.
Redistricting Not In The Cards For State Chicagoist – Quinn broke party ranks on the issue, saying, “I’m not excited about that. It’s awfully complicated. I’m not sure it’s a reform or not, to be honest. …
Democrat remap plan fails in Ill. House
Chicago Daily Southtown – the Legislature more power to draw the political map. Republicans say lawmakers shouldn’t draw their own districts. They want an independent commission to handle redistricting. Earlier, Gov. Pat Quinn threw cold water on the Democratic plan. At an appearance in Glenview on Thursday, the Democratic governor said he’s not sure the plan amounts to real reform.
House rejects Dem redistricting plan; Fair Map petition dropped
Springfield State Journal Register – it should be the electors choosing the legislators,” he said. House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said the measure was a step backwards. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn even said Thursday he wasn’t sure the Democratic measure was true reform. Cross said Quinn’s opposition “speaks volumes” about allowing legislators to draw their
Governor wants retirees to share larger burden of financial problems
Decatur Herald and Review – wouldn’t be necessary for me – the state had me covered for health insurance. I believed what I was told and later retired with no Social Security or Medicare. Fast forward some 48 years. Governor Quinn now wants to renege on those long past promises. He now says the state can’t afford health insurance for its retirees. He also says those retirees not eligible for Medicare must start paying up
Blagojevich case back in court on defense motions
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers are headed back to court with just over a month before his corruption trial is due to get under way and a number of issues still undecided — including whether the judge will issue a subpoena for President Barack Obama. Federal Judge James Zagel who is to preside over the Blagojevich trial may have something to say about the request for the Obama subpoena
The spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens major environmental and economic disaster as it moves toward shore
The controversial new law has divided the police as it has the rest of the population
Violent crime is rare in the People’s Republic because of a ban on guns but that has not stopped a recent string of assaults on children
The Florida governor is about to bolt the Republican Party in an effort to salvage his race for Senator. How big a role did his predecessor play?
Though many challenges remain for the post bankruptcy Chrysler, the combination with Fiat is starting to show promise
Crist leaves GOP in bid for Senate
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday declared himself a man without a party, launching a desperate bid to save his once seemingly invincible Senate campaign.
(By Karen Tumulty, The Washington Post)
Ariz. measure puts police in tight spot
TUCSON — Every day, as Sgt. Russ Charlton patrols the south side of Tucson, he encounters a wide range of this city’s residents — legal, illegal, native-born, naturalized, just passing through. To him, their immigration status is largely irrelevant. “People are just people,” Charlton said.
(By Peter Slevin, The Washington Post)
Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez
VENICE, La. — An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.
(By CAIN BURDEAU and HOLBROOK MOHR, AP)
Gulf of Mexico oil spill reaches Louisiana coast
The worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday threatened not only the shores of five states but also President Obama’s plan to open vast stretches of U.S. coastline to oil and gas drilling.
(By Steven Mufson and Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post)
Goldman case sent to Justice
The Securities and Exchange Commission has referred its investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, less than two weeks after filing a civil securities fraud case against the firm, according to a source familiar with the matter.
(By Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Post)
Paying respects to Miss Dorothy
In the movement, there was Thurgood. There was Martin.
(By Wil Haygood, The Washington Post)
Poll affirms a vote for judicial know-how
Some Senate Democrats and legal activists are advising President Obama to look beyond the “judicial monastery” to find a replacement for retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, but the public does not seem to share that view.
(By Robert Barnes and Jennifer Agiesta, The Washington Post)
doula \DOO-luh\, noun:
A woman who assists during childbirth labor and provides support to the mother, her child and the family after childbirth.
Media Matter catches Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) on the House floor last night comparing the capture of undocumented aliens to that of exotic grasshoppers.
Now it seems to me that if we are so advanced with technology and manpower and competence that we can capture illegal grasshoppers from Brazil, in the holds of ships that are in a little small place in Port Arthur, Texas on the Sabine River. … If we’re able to do that as a country, how come we can’t capture the thousands of people that cross the border everyday on the southern border of the United States?
You know they’re a little bigger than grasshoppers and they should be able to be captured easier.
The context here creates itself.
LiLo could soon find herself trading in those late nights out on the town for yard time and an orange jumpsuit.
If TMZ spies are to be believed, Lindsay has not fulfilled the terms of her probation agreement — which could mean jail time for the troubled actress. Lohan, who is currently on probation for 2007 drinking and drugs offenses, has been setting celeb-watchers abuzz in recent weeks with stories and pictures of her hard partying and erratic behavior. Under the terms of her court judgment, Lindsay must attend alcohol education courses once a week – but TMZ claims the star’s only shown up every 21 days.
In February, Judge Marsha Revel said “everything looks good” with Lindsay’s program, which she is required to complete by July – a deadline extended from last year.
Lohan’s due back in court on May 20.
The weekend officially starts with this video: Cupcakes hurled at people’s faces with a 120psi cupcake cannon, captured at 700 frames per second. Repeat: Super slow motion cupcake EXPLOSIONS. [Johnny Cupcakes] More »
I am currently reading Peter Heather’s Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. This is a substantially more hefty volume in terms of density than The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians . It is also somewhat of a page turner. One aspect of Heather’s argument so far is his attempt to navigate a path between the historically tinged fantasy of what its critics label the “Grand Narrative” of mass migration of barbarian tribes such as the Goths, Vandals and Saxons during the 4th to 6th centuries, dominant before World War II, and its post-World World II counterpoint. As a reaction against this idea archaeologists have taken to a model of pots-not-people, whereby cultural forms flow between populations, and identities are fluid and often created de novo. This model would suggest that only a tiny core cadre of “German” “barbarians” (and yes, often in this area of scholarship the most banal terms are problematized and placed in quotations!) entered the Roman Empire, and the development of a Frankish ruling class in the former Gaul, for example, was a process whereby Romans assimilated to the Germanic identity (with the shift from togas to trousers being the most widespread obvious illustration of Germanization of norms). I believe that liberally applied this model is fantasy as well. Being a weblog where genetics is important, my skepticism of both extreme scenarios is rooted in new scientific data.
There are cases, such as the Etruscans, where the migration is clear from the genetics, both human and their domesticates. The peopling of Europe after the last Ice Age is now very much an open question. The likelihood that the present population of India is the product of an ancient hybridization event between an European-like population and an indigenous group with more affinity with eastern, than western, Eurasian groups, is now a rather peculiar prehistoric conundrum. It also seems likely that the spread of rice farming in Japan was concomitant with the expansion of a Korea-derived group, the Yayoi, at the expense of the ancient Jomon people. And yet there are plenty of inverse cases. The spread of Latinate languages and Romanitas did not seem to perturb the basic patterns of genetic relationship among the peoples of Europe. The emergence of the Magyar nation on the plains of Roman Pannonia seems to have involved mostly the Magyarization of the local population. In contrast, the Bulgars were totally absorbed by their Slavic subjects culturally, leaving only their name. The spread of the Arabic language and culture was predominantly one of memes, not genes (clearly evident in the current dynamic of Arabization in parts of the Maghreb).
And yet you will note that there is a slight difference between the few examples I’ve cited: population replacement seems to have occurred in the more antique cases, rather than the more recent ones. This would naturally bias the perspectives of historians, who have much more data on more recent events (no offense, but archaeologists seem to be able to say whatever they want!). The Etruscan language itself is known only from fragments, while the happenings in prehistoric Europe and India can only be inferred very indirectly. I now offer a modest hypothesis for the distinction, why in some cases is it just the “pots” which move (Arabs), and in other cases it is the people who move (the Japanese). In cases of population replacement there is often a shift in mode of production. In cases where there is the diffusion of culture it is often a system or set of ideas which rent-seeking elites can exploit to maintain their position, or perpetuate it, flow across space. Islam was not only a potent ideology which bound the tribes of Arabia together so that they could engage in collective action, local elites across the new Muslim-dominated world found it a congenial international system whereby they could integrate themselves into a civilization of elite peers, as well as justify their god-given position at the apex of the status hierarchy (granted, many had this in the form of Christianity or Zoroastrianism, but once the old top dogs were overthrown the benefit of these systems was considerably less). The spread of Yayoi culture in Japan involved a shift from more extensive, toward more intensive, forms of agriculture. Their population base was greater, and the domains of the Jomon were left “underexploited” from the perspective of the more productive mode of agriculture which the Yayoi were engaged in. It need not be an issue of mass slaughter or extermination, a high endogenous rate of natural increase as well as disease, combined with assimilation and co-option of local elites, could result in the swallowing up of a population engaged in a less intensive mode of production. This sort of hybrid aspect of cultural and genetic expansion, whereby the local substrate is assimilated and synthesized with the expanding ethnic group, seems to be a good fit to the pattern that we see among the Han of China.
But shifts from modes of production exhibit some level of discontinuity, insofar as there are diminishing returns once all the land appropriate for that mode of production has been taken over. Farmers who are expanding into land held by hunter-gatherers or those practicing less intensive forms of agriculture can have enormous rates of natural increase because they’re not bound by Malthusian constraints. This is evident in the United States, until the late 20th century the majority of the ancestry of the white population of the republic descended from those who were counted in the 1790 census. The reason had to do with the extremely high birthrates among white Americans. When regions such as New England were “filled up,” they pushed out to the “frontier,” to northern Ohio, then to the Upper Midwest, and finally the Pacific Northwest. And in the process there was a radical change in the genetic variation of North America, as the indigenous populations died from disease, were numerically overwhelmed, or genetically absorbed. This is an extreme case scenario, but I think it illustrates what occurs when modes of production collide, so to speak. The pattern in Latin America was somewhat different, though an amalgamated Mestizo population did emerge over time, there was not the wholesale demographic replacement in many regions. And I believe that the reason is that the Iberians did not bring a superior mode of production, rather, the large local population base engaged in agriculture presented an opportunity for rent-seekers to place themselves atop the status hierarchy. Sometimes this involved intermarriage with local elites, as was the case in Peru where the nobility of the Inca intermarried with the Spanish conquistadors for the first few generations (the whiteness of the Peruvian elite despite the fact that the old families have Inca ancestry is simply due to dilution as successive generations of lower Spanish nobility set off to the New World and married into Creole families).
By the Roman period I believe that much of the core Old World was “filled up” in terms of intensive agricultural production. So most, though not all, of the changes in ethnicity or identity are biased toward elite emulation and novel identity formation. The Turks did not bring an innovative new economic system whereby they replaced the Greek and Armenian peasantry in Anatolia, rather, on the contrary peculiarities in the Turkish Ottoman system of rule produced a situation where the old families were usually replaced in positions of power by converts from the Christian groups who assimilated to a Turkish identity. When the economic arrangements reach stasis and the population is at Malthusian equilibrium change is a matter of shifting identities and affinities of the rent-seekers. When radically new economic systems emerge, opportunities for disparate population growth present themselves. Ergo, England went from being demographically dwarfed by France in the 17th century, to surpassing it in population in the 19th. England was of course the first nation to break into a new mode of production since the agricultural revolution.
Credit: Thanks to Michael Vassar for triggering this line of reasoning after a conversation we had about the Neolithic revolution.
[JURIST] The US House of Representatives voted 223-169 Thursday to approve legislation calling for a referendum on the status of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Democracy Act was introduced by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi (D), Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate to the House, and had 181 co-sponsors, including nearly 60 Republicans. The bill would establish a two-step referendum, the first of which would ask voters in Puerto Rico whether they wanted to change the status of the island. If the option to change the island’s status won, a second referendum would be held, giving voters the option of statehood, independence, “sovereignty in association with the United States,” or maintaining the present status. Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno (R), along with the leaders of the territorial legislature, have expressed their support for the bill and eventual statehood. Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) described the bill as “disgraceful,” and “designed to push the statehood agenda, regardless of whether that agenda is … popular among the people.” The vote would be non-binding, and any change to Puerto Rico’s status would still require Congressional approval. The bill still requires approval of the US Senate.
In 2008, the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico, a pro-statehood party whose members primarily affiliate with the US Republican Party, won local elections by a wide margin, winning the offices of governor and resident commissioner and an absolute majority in the territorial legislature. In 2007, The UN Special Committee on Decolonization called on the US to quickly resolve the island’s political status and release political prisoners. Puerto Ricans last voted on the status of the island in 1998, with the “None of the Above” option winning 50.3 percent, statehood garnering 46.5 percent of the vote, and independence only 2.5 percent. Referendums were also held in 1993 and 1967, in which maintaining the current political status won over statehood, and independence placed at a distant third. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated US territory, and its current political status was adopted in 1952, after Congress approved the Puerto Rican Constitution. The constitution established the island as a US commonwealth, causing the UN General Assembly to remove the island’s categorization as a “non-self governing territory.” Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since the 1917, and the island has been under US control since 1898.
The global smartphone market saw its best quarter for the first time in almost three years, according to Strategy Analytics, a research firm.
It found that global smartphone shipments jumped by a gigantic 50 percent to 54 million in Q1 from 36 million in the year-ago period. Smartphones accounted for 18 percent of all smartphones shipped. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shipped a record 21.5 million smartphones to have a leading market share of 40 percent. RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) shipped the second-most handsets to beat Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). The BlackBerry-maker’s market share stands at 20 percent, while Apple’s is at 16.4 percent.
Separately, IDC also released its first-quarter report today, which looks at the overall market for mobile phones—not just the upper echelon. It said that the broader market grew by 21.7 percent to 294.9 million compared to 242.4 million units in the first quarter of 2009. That’s a drastic change in a year ago period when the market declined 16.6 percent.
This quarter’s growth was fueled by smartphones, and for the first time ever, RIM moved into the top five vendor rankings to replace Motorola (NYSE: MOT).
IDC’s Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors:
1. Nokia
2. Samsung
3. LG
4. Research In Motion
5. Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson
TIDBits publishes a terrific extended essay on digital photo post-processing.
These are the AdSense AdWords that show up in the full text feed:
Note the spiffy “next” buttons for more of the same.
WTF?
This is the best Google can do? That post had abundant material for analysis, not to mention the TIDBits URL. At least put in ads for Mac related goods.
Something’s broken. I hope for the sake of Google’s shareholders it’s just a transient glitch.
Guessing the easiest city for finding a job was easy.
It’s America’s money capital, Washington D.C., where Indeed.com reports one job posting for every unemployed person.
Image: The Associated Press
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Source: Indeed.com
Image: AP
Source: Indeed.com
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It’s official, Apple is shutting down Lala.com, a streaming service where users could pay for the rights to steam songs or buy and download them. After May 31, 2010, however, the web music will stop streaming and customers will be given iTunes credit.
CNet says Apple bought Lala for the streaming technology and the move is no surprise:
Apple’s decision to close Lala isn’t much of a surprise as Lala never found much of a foothold as a standalone music service. The real prize for Apple was the company’s streaming technology. Shortly after the Apple’s December acquisition of Lala, sources told CNET that Lala’s engineers and leaders would help spearhead a cloud-based streaming service.
Reader A. is really disappointed:
Apple bought lala.com as you had previously reported but now they’re going to destroy it along with all the songs I had streaming with the service! It was such a good service too, even my mom bought songs and she never uses those content distribution services. They’re offering me itunes credit, but the two services are not comparable. The reason why I bought lala songs was for their diverse artist base which itunes does not quite match.
Apple says bye-bye to Lala [CNet]
The Exxon Valdez disaster happened 21 years ago, but with the devastating spill unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico many are fearing a repeat.
It was March 24, 1989 when the tanker hit a reef dumping 11 million gallons of Alaska crude into the pristine Prince William Sound. 1,300 miles of shoreline were blackened killing an estimated 250,000 birds and more than 1,000 sea otters. It also shut down one of the most important fisheries in the United States.
The cleanup took four years at a cost of $2-billion. And while the government declared the job done in 1992, restoration work continues to this day. Of the 31 species that were impacted, 10 are fully recovered including bald eagles. Another 19 species are listed as recovering and two have never returned, pigeon guillemots and pacific herring.
The fishing town of Cordova which was ground zero for the economic blow has adapted. Those with worthless herring permits either went out of business or switched to fishing halibut and salmon both of which are plentiful again. Many of the fisherman received large compensation checks from Exxon including Ken Adams who was paid $500,000 for his losses. In all, it’s estimated that Cordova and the fishing industry lost $160-million due to the spill.
Most troubling is the amount of oil that still lingers in the environment. NOAA recently finished a study in which it dug 9,000 holes along hundreds of miles of Alaska shoreline. Researchers found oil present in half of the holes and now estimate that 21,000 gallons of oil remain in the soil and may stay there for a hundred more years.
There’s debate about whether to bring heavy equipment in to dig the oil out or just leave it. Scientists know that as long as the oil stays it impacts species. Otters, for example, are diggers. They look for food in shallow water and along the coast. They are continuing to be exposed to the toxic Exxon Valdez oil.
Exxon officials say the company has spent $4.3 billion since the spill. It’s gone to cleanup, compensating fishermen, settlements with state and federal governments and fines. Out of the devastation has come many new safeguards.
Under the Oil Pollution Act, oil tankers must have double hulls, tugs are required to guide tankers out of Valdez and there is much more of a spill response team in place. And some of the lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez are helping in the response in the Gulf.
An oil spill expert has been sent to consult and a spill response group just flew thousands of gallons of chemical dispersant to the region. Alaskans know all too well, the extent of the damage done when oil reaches land.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, making headlines this week for his abandonment of the Republican Party, has just announced a state of emergency in the state’s panhandle.
“The oil slick is generally moving in a northerly direction and threatens Florida’s coast,” the executive order (PDF) reads. “Oil continues to spill from the well as all efforts to stop the discharge have failed and may not succeed for an extended period of time.”
The warning applies to the counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf.
Florida’s move follows that of Louisiana, which declared an emergency of its own yesterday.
[In a weird coincidence, I wrote this post up mere hours before this news story on the same topic came out at JPL.]
With all the stunning images and animations coming from the Cassini probe, it’s easy to forget that some pretty cool stuff can be seen from Earth, too. Amateur astronomer Emil Kraaikamp sent me this animation he made of Saturn taken with his 25 cm (10″) telescope in The Netherlands. Keep your eyes on the upper half of Saturn, above the rings.
See the white spot? That’s actually a huge storm… and by “huge”, I mean about the same size as the Earth! I usually think of Jupiter as the stormy planet, but Saturn has its share as well. A lot of the time, these storms are discovered here on Earth by amateur astronomers, who spend more time looking at planets globally, as opposed to professional astronomers who aren’t always observing every planet all the time. Last year, a “storm” seen on Jupiter by an amateur turned out to be the impact cloud from a collision by an asteroid or comet!
Here’s one of the images Emil used in his animation:
You can see two moons, the rings (and the dark Cassini Division, a gap in the rings), banding on the planet itself, and of course the storm. Note that when he took these shots, Saturn was 1.3 billion km (almost 800 million miles) away! Astronomy is one of the very few sciences where amateurs — and by that, I mean people who aren’t paid to do it as a career — still make an incredibly important, and even critical contribution. With observations like Emil’s, you can see why.
Filed under: Motorsports, BMW, Racing
It’s official, they’re finally here: Racers of the roundel can buy BMW Motorsport parts at four locations in the U.S. The catalog selection includes the 2008 BMW Z4, 1995-2010 M3, and the 3 Series sedan from 2006 onward. You’ll need to get yourself to Illinois, Atlanta, New Hampshire, or Solon, Ohio to pick your parts by hand… but you want to win, don’t you? Follow the jump for the press release from BMW.
[Source: BMW]
Continue reading BMW Motorsports parts now available in the U.S.
BMW Motorsports parts now available in the U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In case you haven’t noticed, there are now 2 Twitters.
The first Twitter operates just as its founders intended. Its a great broadcast medium for quickly distributing quick hits of information and/or links. Its a great source of real-time information that travels with you on any device. Its the ultimate enabler of “if information is important to me, it will find me”. On all levels, this version of Twitter is succeeding for its users.
The second Twitter is not so pleasant. This version of Twitter is the home for hate and ridicule. It’s where everyone and anyone can quickly create an account and spew whatever venom they choose directly at the target of their derision. Lisa Rinna recently got into it with a follower who criticized her appearance. My timeline is filled with people with 1 or 2 followers who apparently set up an account purely to curse or condemn me and others. It takes the fun and return out of Twitter when you look at the tweets people send you and its full of people hoping you are in a car accident , get knifed or just plain cursing you.
Every medium has its problems. Every medium also has a hassle vs return equation as well. If the hate numbers continue to increase for twitter, so will the hassle and the likelihood that those who invest time towards using Twitter as it should be used will choose to stop using it.
The anonymity of Twitter has value, but like Myspace in the early days, what worked for it in the short term, could work against it in the long term. If Twitter doesn’t come up with a solution for the quantity of hate being published, the door will be open for others to pre – empt and replace it.
Researcher Jeffrey Long and his colleagues at UC Berkeley have discovered a cost effective way to make hydrogen from seawater using a molybdenum-oxo catalyst and a mercury electrode. This is not Long’s first foray into H2 either as back in 2005, he was working on developing hydrogen storage materials for use in cars.
In September 2007, I had talked about using radio waves to burn seawater to produce hydrogen. Then in March 2009, I had talked about producing hydrogen from seawater with the use of magnets.
The key features of the UC Berkeley discovery includes, “Significantly, Long’s catalyst is also stable in the presence of impurities that can be found in the ocean, meaning that sea water can be used without pre-treatment. The team used a sample of California sea water in the system and found the results to be similar to the results obtained for water at neutral pH. In addition, no other electrolyte is necessary when using sea water, which helps reduce costs and removes any need for organic acids or solvents that could degrade the catalyst.”
Scientists have long been experimenting with different methods of using seawater to produce hydrogen (ocean buoys, deep sea underwater turbines and wind turbines have also been researched). Since most of the Earth’s surface is covered with saltwater, the prospect of using this vast resource is enticing.
Of course if Long’s technology does scale up into commercialization, then perhaps a mobile seawater-to-hydrogen station would be advisable especially in light of disasters such as the recent oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico which would most assuredly muck up the system. But, nonetheless, the UC Berkeley research is encouraging as a highly efficient and low cost method of producing hydrogen from the Earth’s most abundant resource which is water.
Dow Corning collaborates with Reis Robotics to deliver solar encapsulant technology to the market. …
… “Reis Robotics is now a preferred supplier of equipment used in a manufacturing process that significantly increases the production rate of solar panels, effectively lowering the cost per watt of solar power. The manufacturing process works in conjunction with Dow Corning PV-6100 Encapsulant Series, which provides protection to solar cells in a panel and can replace commonly used ethyl vinyl acetate resin. The liquid silicone-based material targets outperforming incumbent materials in durability, module efficiency, and manufacturing efficiencies providing an improved total cost for solar cell modules. “ …
Via Dow Corning: Market Breakthrough Solar Encapsulation Technology
